Various child car seats that are used when an infant is carried by passenger cars or the like have been proposed. For example, JP2002-301965A discloses a child car seat including a pedestal mountable on a seat of a vehicle, and a seat body supported on the pedestal. In this child car seat, the seat body can be slid with respect to the pedestal, and an inclination angle of the seat body with respect to the pedestal can be varied, i.e., the seat body can be reclined. In addition, when the seat body of this child car seat is moved up to an end of a range within which the seat body can be slid, the seat body can be turned with respect to the pedestal. Thus, not only an infant can be seated on the seat body so as to face forward in an advancing direction, but also the infant can be seated on the seat body so as to face backward in the advancing direction.
In the child car seat disclosed in JP2002-301965A, by operating a lever provided on the seat body, the seat body can be slid with respect to the pedestal. In order that the seat body is slid up to a position at which the seat body can be turned, it is necessary to further operate a lever provided on the pedestal. Thus, according to this child car seat, the seat body can be efficiently prevented from being unintentionally moved to the position at which the seat body can be turned.
The present invention is relevant to the child car seat disclosed in JP2002-301965A. A first object of the present is to provide a child car seat that can efficiently prevent a seat body from being unintentionally moved to a position at which the seat body can be turned, by means of a structure different from that of the child car seat disclosed in JP2002-301965A.
In addition, for example, JP2003-267099A discloses a child car seat including a child car seat body, and a support leg to be disposed between a floor surface of a vehicle and the child car seat body so as to support the child car seat body. In this child car seat, the support leg is configured to be swingable, in order to save a space for storage. In addition, the support leg has an inner tube and an outer tube so as to be extendable and contractable.
Recently, safety improvement has been further required. In the child car seat disclosed in JP2003-267099A, if the support leg is configured to be non-swingable and non-extendable, a play of the support leg is reduced as a whole. Thus, it is considered that the child car seat can be mounted more stably on a seat of a vehicle. However, in order to ensure versatility of the child car seat for various kinds of vehicles, the support leg should be actually configured to be extendable. On the other hand, when the support leg is configured to be non-swingable but extendable, there is a possibility that an external force might be intensively applied to a connection point between the outer tube and the inner tube for ensuring the extendable structure. Thus, it is necessary that the outer tube and the inner tube are securely fixed to each other.
In the child car seat disclosed in JP2003-267099A, the inner tube is fixed onto the outer tube by a screw that passes through the tube surface of the inner tube so as to extend thereinto. According to this method, although the inner tube can be securely fixed onto the outer tube, the fixing operation is complicated.
Thus, in the child car seat disclosed in JP2003-267099A, it can be considered that the screw is replaced with a mere pin. However, in this case, the inner tube cannot be securely fixed on the outer tube. In addition, when a large force is applied to a housing or the like that holds the pin, there is a possibility that the housing might be deformed so that the pin drops out of the inner tube. Alternatively, it can be considered that, not only the pin extends inside the inner tube, but also the pin penetrates through the inner tube. However, in this case, since the pin must pass through both of a pair of through-holes respectively formed in the opposite surfaces of the inner tube, the fixing operation is complicated.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. A second object of the present invention is to provide a highly rigid support leg easy to use, and a child car seat including the support leg.